Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 11:34
May 27, 2009 — Harry Snelson
The following is a brief explanation of the origin of swine influenza in North America and the A/H1N1-2009 influenza strain currently circulating among the human population in over 40 countries.
Classical H1 (cH1N1) swine influenza viruses (SIV) were first identified in North America in the 1930s. The virus remained genetically stable until the 1998 emergence in swine of a triple-reassortant virus, H3N2, comprised of genes of swine, avian and human ... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 11:01
May 27, 2009 —
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it is taking longer than anticipated to prepare the seed stock needed to manufacture a vaccine for the A/H1N1-2009 influenza virus.
The global health agency said the virus isn't growing very quickly in the laboratory. That means vaccine makers won't be able to start production until mid-July at the earliest.
WHO officials originally said they would be able to deliver the seed stock to manufacturers by the end of t... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:47
May 29, 2009 —
An important concern is to address whether US commercial swine herds are susceptible to the new swine origin (S/O) H1N1 influenza virus.
Experiment: The new S/O H1N1 influenza A virus isolated from a person in California in March 2009 (A/CA/04/2009) was obtained from CDC and grown in vitro (that is, in a permissive cell line). The standard hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test was used to investigate whether serum samples from pigs infected or vaccinated with US... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:39
June 2, 2009 —
There's no other way to say this: The end of the current pork industry is near.
The "14 days of spring" from April 24 to May 8 -- when news surrounding the A/H1N1 influenza pounded the hog and pork markets -- has undermined the markets outlook for the next 18 months and will cause significant losses for pork producers this year and next year and significant producer rationalization that will create a new, substantially more consolidated industry, according to Fe... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:39
June 2, 2009 —
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will make the master seed virus (MSV) for the novel H1N1 flu available to interested veterinary biologics manufacturers.
APHIS estimates the MSV will be ready in early- to mid-July 2009. USDA is deriving the MSV from a sample acquired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through collaboration between Agricultural Research Service's (ARS) National Animal Disease Center (NADC) and CVB.
Since 1993, CVB has li... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:13
June 9, 2009 —
The following are preliminary results reported May 29, 2009 of an EU funded study to investigate the pathogenicity and transmissibility of the novel H1N1 virus in pigs. The study was conducted by an EU project consortium coordinated by VLA-Weybridge.
Study aims
To investigate infection dynamics, clinical outcome, pathogenesis, host susceptibility and transmissibility of influenza A (H1N1) [associated with global epidemic in humans, hereafter referred to as infl... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:08
June 11, 2009 — Harry Snelson
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a pandemic declaration following the global emergence of a novel influenza A virus in the human population.
Based on consultations with expert assessments of the available evidence, the organization has raised the pandemic alert from 5 to 6, its highest level, signaling the official start of the 2009 influenza pandemic. Current evidence indicates that the pandemic, at least in its early days, will like... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:07
June 12, 2009 —
It seems the United States is not the only country struggling with an oversupply of pork.
China has started buying frozen pork for its government reserves to relieve an oversupply of live pigs that has driven live pig and pork prices below breakeven, according to the official Chinese news service Xinhua.
Statistics released by China's National Development and Reform Commission Price Monitoring Center showed that average live pig prices in major cities across C... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:06
June 16, 2009 —
Maintaining healthy pigs, improving productivity, and minimizing the effects of disease through the use of effective management procedures or pharmaceuticals (vaccines and antimicrobials) are important. Field trials conducted on commercial farms are a useful way of testing the ability of a new product to improve production or to decrease illness and death.
Pigs should be allocated to treatment groups using a formal random process, which means that each pig in t... [More]
Posted by Administrator on July 22 2009 10:05
June 16, 2009 —
Blood testing in the H1N1-infected herd of pigs in Canada has ruled out a farm worker as the source of the virus, Alberta's health department has stated.
The farm worker had travelled to Mexico shortly before the pigs became infected and had a flu-like illness prompting officials to believe this as the suspected source.
Howard May, a spokesman for Alberta's health department, couldn't immediately say whether health officials still believe the virus could have ... [More]